“I didn’t think I would get it,” Chiu said. “After the nomination was in, I looked at the past winners. They are very good students. When my research adviser, Dr. Nielsen, came to my office in January and told me I had won, I thought, ‘Wow.’ ”

Dr. Steven Nielsen, an assistant professor of chemistry who nominated Chiu for the award, said he was not surprised Chiu had won.

“Chi-cheng is excellent,” Nielsen said. “He is more than qualified.”

Chiu studies the computer modeling portion of a multi-tiered research project investigating the potential toxicity of nanoparticles. The research group includes:

The team is working to develop correlations, or relationships, that predict whether certain properties of nanoparticles pose a toxicity risk. The research may point toward ways to reduce problems in semiconductor manufacturing.

“There is a lot of controversy about nanotube interactions with the cell,” Chiu said. “When you purchase nanotubes from a commercial vendor, they are contaminated with other chemicals that can impact both your results and your interpretation of the results. On the modeling side, we can study pristine nanotubes, but we are limited to modeling only a small portion of the cell.”

The research is part of a project titled “Predicting, Testing, and Neutralizing Nanoparticle Toxicity.” Awardees received $120,000 for year 1 from SRC/SEMATECH, with an additional $45,000 of matching funds from the dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and $20,000 of matching funds from the vice president for research and the provost.